Latent tuberculosis infection screening in persons newly-diagnosed with HIV infection in Italy: a multicentre study promoted by the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases

ABSTRACT Background The Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases performed a survey on the application of guidelines for the management of persons living with HIV (PLWH), to evaluate current practice and yield of the screening for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in newly-diagnosed PLWH, offer of preventive therapy to LTBI-individuals, and completion rate. Materials/methods We retrospectively (2016/2017) evaluated newly-diagnosed PLWH in 9 centres, using binary and multinomial logistic regressions to identify factors associated with LTBI diagnostic screening and QuantiFERON (QFT) results. Results Of 801 patients evaluated, excluding active TB, 774 were studied. LTBI tests were performed in 65.5%. Prescription was associated with being foreign-born (OR: 3.19, p  Conclusions LTBI screening is inconsistently performed in newly-diagnosed PLWH, TB-preventive therapy is not offered to all LTBI-individuals and compliance is poor.